Commentary on the Gospel of
The Act Reading presents Paul’s activity in the Areopagus hall. This text is presented by some people as a typical dialogue between faith and reason. Some others underline the similarities between the situation described in the text and our days. That’s why we speak about evangelization new Areopagus. In any case, however we present it, we can bring this text to our life.
We can find some similarities between Monday’s first Reading and today’s. Paul starts speaking to the Athenian citizens. He starts from their culture. This is always a good starting point in the evangelization process. However, a good starting point does not suppose the success of the process. On Monday's reading, we see how Lydia and all her family was converted to Christianity. Today's reading presents three types of reactions to Paul’s speech: it is a joke, “we must hear you on this topic some other time” and join the faith. Paul’s strategy was good, but he did not have success. When we talk about evangelization, we should realize that having a good strategy is not enough to ensure success. Faith and the Evangelization process is more than a good product or a good marketing campaign. The process of evangelization is to sow, knowing that it will not always produce results.
Throughout these days the Gospel gives us a catechesis about the Holy Spirit. We realize that faith is a process. We are not in the same situation and our faith answer is not as good or as clear as we would like. Sometimes there are things that we cannot bear now. Other times, we respond as Athenians “we must hear you on this topic some other time”. And other times we go deep into the faith. We need the Helper to grow up in our faith. The best teacher in our faith growing process is the Holy Spirit, I invite you to pray God asking for it.
